Analysis of the European Union and its effects - Good or Bad

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Today's European Union is a continuously growing example of a forged determination from European leaders in response to World War II that was intended to ensure the prevention of violent conflicts from ever occurring at that magnitude ever again. The method by which these leaders intended this peace to sustain itself was through the forging together of each country's industrialized complexes and establishing economic stability and cooperation between each country (Wilson, 2010).

This determination of today's European Union to remain strong was based on the history of Europe prior to the formation of the centralized government. In the twentieth century, fierce competition between Germany and France was the major catalyst that tore Europe in two (Dietl, 2009). In 1939-1945, the war across the European continent resulted in destruction and catastrophic death on a biblical scale. It was like nothing the world had ever seen before. Over six years, it is calculated that more than 65 million people were killed and all major infrastructure across the continent was damaged or destroyed. Millions of families were torn apart never to be rejoined (Dietl, 2009).

It took only Five years after the war had subsided for the initial groundwork to be established for what would eventually become the European Union. In 1950, Europe formed a unilateral body called The European Coal and Steel Community. The leader of this progression was Robert Shuman, the then French Foreign Minister. He stated the objective of the newly founded European Coal and Steel Community was to ensure that "any war between Germany and France would be not only unthinkable, but materially impossible". Based on the combination of the countries coal and steel infrastructures which were the engines behind each countries military power, and through dismantling the power bases of each country, this vision seemed possible (Mroz, 2010).

Many of the obstacles that the newly founded European Coal and Steel Community would face came from the outside political pressure to realign the energy and resources between country's in order to regain military strength and might. However, these ...